After beating Indiana last night, Atlanta went down to Miami. The last time they played, it wasn’t pretty. This one was a lot closer. They played nip and tuck all game. Atlanta actually had a lead in the third, but Miami got ahead late and was able to sink the key shots to stay ahead in a 89-86 win. The Hawks can hold their head high that they stayed with the Heat after flying down from Indy (Presumably, Peyton Manning did not hitch a ride on the team charter) That does sound kind of Pollyannaish and will not erase the stain of the loss, but Atlanta played well without Joe and Al. Josh Smith came up big again. It was a moral victory, and as an alumni of Vanderbilt, I know all about moral victories. I know a common theme is the insanity of the compressed schedule, but here we go again. It’s a six game road trip, with three in the east (the other is Detroit), and three out west (Sacramento, Denver, the Clips). Fortunately, this is the last extended trip of the season, so Atlanta has to tread water until they return. (There is a three game that’s still on the docket, but compared to these five and six gamers, that’s a walk in the park). But injuries are the concern. Larry Drew tattled on the worst kept secret in town by announcing that Al is definitely out for the rest of the regular season. Joe Johnson will take his time on recovering. It’s smart. If he rushes back, he runs the risk of severely injuring himself. The word is he’ll test it at a practice following Detroit and then see what happens. They sorely could have used him against Miami. Zazu logged 41 minutes at center. Josh scored 23 and Jeff Teague added 16, and Stackhouse had 10. LeBron poured in 31, while Dwayne Wade added 17 (including some clutch foul shots at the end to ice it)